原文作者：Om Tandon 译者：Megan Shieh

为什么会有越来越多的休闲游戏采用中核游戏中常见的功能和特性？《怒鸟2》和同系列的其他游戏有何不同？为了解答这些问题，我们对《怒鸟》的开发团队Rovio进行了采访。

休闲游戏

通常我们会把玩法相对简单、拥有庞大的活跃用户基础、（与其他类游戏相比）盈利潜力有限的游戏称为“休闲游戏”。简而言之，休闲游戏的受众通常是那些不把自己看作“游戏玩家”的人，我们称之为“休闲玩家”。

像《怒鸟》、《糖果粉碎传奇》和《神庙逃亡》这样的休闲游戏往往带有相对简单的规则、无需花费大量时间、对玩家的游戏技术也没有过高的要求，这些特点使得休闲游戏有别于像《部落冲突》，《皇室战争》和《战争游戏》这样的中核游戏。

从游戏设计和认知负荷的角度来看，休闲游戏通常带有易懂的核心回路和相对简单的货币体系。一般情况下，休闲游戏的会话时长约为3分钟。此外与中核和硬核游戏相比，休闲游戏玩家只需承受极少的认知负荷。

然而由于以下几个因素，休闲玩家正在走向成熟：

1）他们逐渐掌握了休闲游戏中常见的游戏机制；

2）长期反复地游玩同种题材的内容和机制；

3）由于大量克隆产品的出现，对曾经喜爱的元素不再感到新奇；

4）休闲游戏开发者逐渐引入更深层次的设计。

据推测，在传统休闲游戏和中核游戏之间，存在着大量成熟的休闲玩家！这群经验丰富的休闲游戏玩家可能会想要过渡到更为复杂的游戏，但是他们往往不喜欢传统中核游戏中固有的玩法—等待计时器、基地建设、部队训练、经济管理、组建部落、策略操作等。他们可能会觉得休闲游戏太浅薄，但中核游戏又太复杂，这样一来，这个群体就成为了一块有待填补的市场空白。

实例：《愤怒的小鸟2》

《怒鸟2》引入了中核游戏中较为常见的几个特性——多种进阶路径、每日任务，PvP竞技场以及Gacha机制，以此带领休闲游戏和休闲玩家走向更复杂、更吸引人的中核体验。

问：《怒鸟2》在前作的基础上添加了大量的功能和特性，其背后原因是什么？

Henrik Lundin（《怒鸟2》首席设计师）：前作的核心玩法很受欢迎，我们认为没有必要过多地篡改它，因此我们保留了前作的核心，同时将精力更多地集中在了围绕核心回路的元游戏（metagame）上。

开发团队在《怒鸟2》中引入了一个鸟类升级系统，然而只有一个不断送出奖励的线性地图感觉有些无趣，因此我们还加入了“每日挑战”和“竞技场”功能，在进一步考验玩家的同时增加他们所取得的奖励和进度。

问：原作之所以备受欢迎，在很大程度上归功于它的简单性。当你引入这些新功能的时候，是否担心它们会给《怒鸟2》添加太多复杂性？你是否担心这会使现有的休闲玩家感到困惑？如果是的话，开发团队采取了哪些预防措施来缓解这种情况？

Henrik Lundin：一开始的时候，玩家会感觉《怒鸟2》与原作非常相似。Saga地图、各种怒鸟和猪、各种章节，这些原作中都有。当玩家越来越习惯这款游戏的时候，我们才会开始解锁难度稍微大一点的功能。

《怒鸟2》与中核游戏的相似之处：

多个进阶路径

在原作中，玩家只能通过一条线性路径来推动进度，通过闯关的方式去到下一个世界，而《怒鸟2》提供了各种平行的、相互交织的进阶路径。

玩家账户升级

玩家通过收集星星的方式来实现升级，升到一定的级别可以解锁每日任务、每日挑战、竞技场模式等功能。这一机制可以激励玩家反复重玩关卡，直到获得三颗星为止。

鸟类升级

玩家可以升级鸟类，从而增加它们在碰撞时产生的破坏点。破坏点不仅可以帮助玩家获得三颗星，而且还可以让玩家获得额外的子弹（怒鸟）。一旦玩家集齐了羽毛之后，游戏界面就会提示玩家升级自己的怒鸟。

他们还可以购买像‘帽子’这样的功能性产品（魔法道具），就像许多中核游戏中的配件一样，它们可以增加鸟类的破坏力，从而创造更多虚拟货币。用来升级怒鸟的羽毛可以通过Gacha，每日奖励和竞技场获得。

Om：为什么会添加这么多东西？

Henrik Lundin：我们想在原作的基础上给玩家带来更多更有趣的东西：加强游戏角色的构建，在不删除现有功能的前提下，为玩家提供不同种风格的进阶方式。

如果玩家喜欢游戏中的角色，他们就更有可能参与游戏并尝试不同的功能。游戏中有多种进阶路径，但是这些进阶的终极目的都是升级怒鸟。这么做能让我们在保持低复杂度的同时，提供不同种玩法。

如果我们不把这些新功能添加到游戏中，就很难在未来的日子里延展出新的内容。《怒鸟2》目前的表现和状态都十分良好，如果当初没有添加这些功能的话，我们可能就不会有今天。

Om：玩家对这些新内容的反响如何？毕竟魔法道具（帽子）之类的东西在中核游戏中比较常见。

Henrik Lundin：反响都很积极。推出魔法帽子以后，玩家们突然间多了新的目标。我们认为这是一个非常积极的变化，玩家们在游玩的时候感觉自己有选择权，可以给自己的怒鸟选帽子戴，也可以根据自己的喜好选择进阶路径。

弹弓升级

要想升级弹弓，玩家必须先解锁所有鸟类。要过了第1-44关以后才能解锁所有鸟类，这种做法可以为玩家提供更多的奖励和目标，同时消除了闯关的直线性，也为玩家提供了更多趣味性和动力。

Om：为什么开发团队要添加多种升级和进阶路径？如何确保玩家在不被多种选择淹没的前提下，理解它们各自的作用？

Måns Wide（《怒鸟2》制作总监）：saga地图非常地浅显易懂，而且在休闲游戏中相当有效，但是也带有许多限制。玩家们分布在一张大地图的不同角落，在这种情况下要推出季度性内容就有些困难。此外，升级自己心爱的怒鸟也比单纯的闯关更有趣，更能推动玩家参与。另一方面，我们每次只解锁一个功能，而且也在努力保持平衡，避免玩家在同一时间内获得太多新信息。

2）Gacha的引入

宝箱系统

宝箱系统在中核和硬核玩家中非常受欢迎，因为它增加了运气和期待的元素。《怒鸟2》的玩家每30分钟可以获得一个带有奖励的免费宝箱，如果他们想要更多宝箱，也可以通过IAP付费购买。

财富塔

这是一种既有趣又吸引人的每日奖励机制，充分利用了行为经济学中的“厌恶损失（Loss Aversion）”原则。在经济学和决策理论中，“厌恶损失”指的是人们更注重避免损失而不是获得等价收益。

“财富塔”是一种每日奖励机制，玩家有75%的胜算和25%的失败可能。该功能的视觉效果是一个在每一层都会停留的电梯，每个楼层都会给玩家出示四张牌，其中的三张牌是一层比一层更好的奖励，而另外一张牌是一只猪，它将拿走你此前收集到的所有奖励。在翻转每张牌之前，玩家都有机会带着他们已经获得的奖励离开。

当玩家翻到一头猪时，可以选择放弃已经收集到的所有奖励或支付宝石继续游戏。这时“厌恶损失”的情况就出现了，玩家通常会选择支付小额费用继续抽卡，因为他们不愿放弃已经“到手”的奖励，而且与这些奖励相比，所需支付的费用似乎显得有些微不足道。然而随着楼层的上升，每只猪的价格会显著增加，玩家累积的奖励也会越来越多，这时他们就更不愿意放弃了，所以就宁愿支付更多宝石来继续游戏…

Om：Gacha机制的灵感来自哪里？为什么你觉得这种中核/硬核类机制会受到现有玩家的喜爱？

HenrikLundin：因为既有趣又令人兴奋，所以随机奖励机制一直都非常受玩家欢迎。我们利用视觉呈现的方式清晰地展现了宝箱的作用。其中非常重要的一个部分是，当玩家开启宝箱的时候，所有的奖励都会以一种醒目的动画效果自动加入到它们所属的地方。这种做法可以帮助玩家了解Gacha机制的作用和好处。

Om: Gacha机制的参与率高吗？

Måns Wide:“财富塔”对《怒鸟2》带来了巨大的影响，特别是在宝石消费方面。直至目前为止，平均30%的硬通货都花在了这里。至于参与率嘛，这个不好说。因为在“财富塔”推出的一个月后，我们又推出了一个新的开始界面（非常重大的变更），因此也不好推算。
Om：《怒鸟2》的目标是吸引并带领现有休闲玩家走向中核？还是吸引中核玩家来玩这款游戏？

Henrik Lundin：《怒鸟》本身就是一个具有大众吸引力的品牌，我们想要制作一款所有人都能玩的游戏，从而保持《怒鸟》的大众吸引力。从延展性的角度来看，我们认为“提高深度”对我们自己和玩家而言都有好处。但是在这方面，我们肯定是一步一脚印地慢慢前进，不会一下子就来个360度大转变。

我们想要让《怒鸟2》显得平易近人，同时也想确保游戏深度足以满足大多数玩家，于是我们在这两个想法之间找到了一个很好的平衡点。《怒鸟2》最棒的地方就是，很多东西都是可以选择的。玩家可以在所有内容中，选择自己喜欢的东西去玩。

带领休闲玩家走向中核需要花上几个月的时间，但是随着这些玩家的演变，我们认为《怒鸟2》是进入中核市场的一个绝佳途径。

3）竞技场和社交功能

每3个小时，玩家会收到一张允许让他们进入竞技场的票。在竞技场中，玩家在一场非同步战斗中与其他玩家对抗，获得破坏点数最高的玩家赢得比赛。

Om：竞技场战斗显然是用来增加社交属性的一个重大举措，社交方面的目标是否透过这个模式实现了呢？

Henrik Lundin：竞技场模式在《怒鸟2》中扮演了两大角色。第一个角色是加强游戏的社交方面，与其他玩家交互并且感受对战的乐趣；其次是给那些喜欢竞争的玩家们提供一个可以一决高下的地方。我认为，即便是那些偏休闲的玩家也能在竞争中获得乐趣，因为每个人都喜欢获胜的成就感！

竞技场模式中的玩法与游戏中的其他部分基本一致，唯一的区别在于玩家比的是双方的最后比分。这就意味着与传统玩法相比，竞技场模式的门槛并没有明显高出许多。在竞技场中获胜的玩家可以提高联赛排名并且获得额外的优质奖励，从而进一步推动玩家参与。

Om：《怒鸟2》未来还会推出哪些新特性？

Måns Wide：现今的中核玩家倾向于动态的在线运营内容，我们将在游戏中增加更多紧迫感，并增强对社交和合作机制的关注度。

Om：对休闲领域的其他开发者有什么建议？如何在这个拥挤的市场中脱颖而出？

Henrik Lundin：首先，休闲并不意味着肤浅。成功与否取决于你向玩家展示信息的方式，以一种玩家可以理解的方式去接触他们，这样他们就不会感到迷失和困惑。

其次，游戏寿命很重要。当你在设计一款游戏的时候，确保这款游戏能够在未来的日子里扩展并且长期吸引玩家。

在过去的休闲游戏中，90%的体验都是围绕核心玩法。我相信在未来的日子里，元游戏的质量将会得到进一步提升。

Om：《怒鸟2》的成功归功于哪些因素？

Mia Lähteenmäki (Rovio用户研究实验室)：

游戏设计师在相关领域的技能和经验，适应现有知识的能力；

开发出一套适合这款游戏的设计原则，从而长期保持游戏设计的持续性；

倾听并理解玩家的想法，开发团队参考的不只是分析数据带来的结论，我们也会从其他渠道获取并分析信息。举个例子，包括产品主管在内的开发团队一直活跃在我们的粉丝网站和社交媒体上（如Facebook），可以说他们很了解玩家对游戏的看法。

总结

透过以上分析，我们可以得出以下结论：

“玩家逐渐演变成熟”是一种不断上升的趋势，开发者们可以通过温和的方式在休闲游戏中引入中核特性，从而带着休闲玩家过渡到难度更高、更有竞争性的玩法。

以一种休闲玩家可以理解和接受的方式在休闲游戏中加入中核机制，这种做法可以延长休闲游戏的保质期限，为游戏添加更多的延展性和深度，从而创造更多的沉浸式体验。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Why and how are casual games pivoting towards mid-core features? What differentiates Angry Birds 2 from all the previous Angry Birds games? For the first time a close chat with how the team at Rovio built Angry Birds 2 and what led them to make those bold design decisions.

Casual Games

Casual games is a relatively new genre that was arguably kicked off by PopCap when Bejeweled launched on browsers in 2001. The true growth of the genre was enabled by Facebook and driven by Zynga’s FarmVille and other Ville-style games. The third and largely ongoing growth started in 2012, when King took its popular Facebook game Candy Crush Saga to mobile. Today, when we talk about casual games, we tend to mean games with relatively simple gameplay, substantial active user base and somewhat limited monetization potential compared to more advanced games.

In short, casual games are generally targeted at people who may not traditionally consider themselves as gamers.

Casual games like Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga, and Temple Run are typically distinguished by simple rules, reduced demand on time and limited need of skills demanded from the players. These characteristics sets casual games apart from competitive resource management oriented games like Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Game of War. From a game design and cognitive load perspective, casual games have a straightforward core gameplay loop and simple currency sinks. In general, the session lengths in casual games are around three minutes. In contrast to more ‘core’ games, casual games also require players to do very less cognitive load management.

Why casual games and gamers might be maturing?

In an article published in early 2016 I speculated how masses of casual game players have come a long way since the early days of mobile games. As time has passed, casual games have been improved with new content and features. While we still play the same ‘old’ match-three, infinite runners and hidden object games, these games offer more deeper experience than their earlier version did 6 years ago.

I believe that casual gamers may be maturing due to:

1) Mastery of same old game mechanics.

2) Longevity and familiarity of playing the same genre and mechanics repetitiously.

3) Wearing off of the novelty value due to a flood of clones.

4) Introduction of ever deeper designs by game developers.

“As speculated, in between traditional genres now seemingly exists a massive pool of matured veteran casual player base!”

How to design for maturing casual players

This mass of matured veteran casual players may want to make a transition to more intricate gameplay but may be wary of high entry barriers, grinding, wait timers, base building, troop training, managing economies, social pressure of clans, cognitive load of making strategies that conventional mid-core games need (See mid-core loops above). All of which casual players hate. This can lead to a vacuum creation.

In short these veteran casual players may find the climb of casual games too SHALLOW, but mid-core too STEEP!

But this gap between casual and mid core genres can also be a window of opportunity!

Let’s look at how some top Devs. have successfully identified this gap and are experimenting to engage this audience.

Rovio Entertainment

Rovio Entertainment has seen unprecedented growth this year by experimenting and evolving it’s holster of casual games.

Rovio rose to fame with launch of its iconic smash hit Angry Birds title in December 2009, the game with its simple mechanics and ease of use on mobile enchanted masses of casual players and opened the world of games to many first time gamers, across the globe! The game was also boosted by the rise of iPhone and App Store. The game was simply perfect for the iPhone screen.

Let’s see how Angry Birds has evolved casual games and gamers towards mid-core features - with Angry Birds 2, having multiple progression paths, daily quests, Arena and Gacha.

Unlike its predecessor, Angry Bird 2 pushed the boundaries of what Rovio had to offer to casual players both in terms of content and mechanics, thereby introducing masses of casual players to more intricate and engaging mechanics commonly found in mid-core games.

Q & A with Rovio team:

Om: The number of additional features that AB2 offers compared to AB, what was the design thinking behind making such a dramatic change?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): With the initial design of Angry Birds 2, we knew that the core of Angry Birds works very well and tampering too much with it wouldn’t make much sense. Therefore we chose to keep the fun core intact and instead focus on the metagame around it.

“Knowing that we were making a sequel to a game downloaded billions of times, we needed to build something that we could expand upon for years to come. “_ Henrik Lundin

A system for leveling and improving the main characters of the game, the birds, hence felt very suitable for the game. Having a leveling system like that requires meaningful features that support that progression and just having a saga map with constant rewards felt very linear and uninteresting. That’s why the Daily Challenge and Arena features got added, where the players are put to the test to further increase their rewards and progression.

Om: When making such drastic changes, were you ever worried that it might add layers of complexity to the essence of what made the original title such a hit? Were you worried that it may perplex your existing casual player base? If yes, what precautions you took to mitigate it?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): When a new player started the game, our goal was that it should feel very familiar to classic Angry Birds. They had their saga map, they had the birds and pigs and they progressed through different chapters. As the player gets more used to the game we start unlocking features that are slightly more complex.

Something that might make Angry Birds 2 stand out from other games with higher complexity is our specific design aim for very spacious user interface.

“Features are not hidden behind menus or in long lists, they are all exposed and playful in their words which contributes to a more approachable user experience” _ Henrik Lundin

If players feel like they rather play a certain feature over the other we are not stopping them from doing so, every player is different in how they consume their entertainment.

AB 2 Similarities with Mid-Core Loops:

Multiple paths of progression : Unlike its predecessor, where players had a single track linear progression path of beating a set number of levels to move to next world, AB 2 offers a variety of parallel and intertwined progression arcs.

a) Player account Level Up

Player levels up by collecting stars. This account level is used to gate features such as the Daily Quests, Daily Challenge, and the Arena mode. Account level incentivized the player to replay levels till they are three-starred.

b) Birds Level Up : Crafting, Fusion & Components

Players can level up birds increasing the destruction points they generate upon collision. Points not only allow to get that coveted three-star-rating but they also contribute to getting the additional bird to sling.

As soon as players have enough feathers to upgrade a bird, they are prompted to do so, similar to character levelling up in mid-core games like Marvel Contest and Star Wars : Galaxy of Heroes.

Players can also buy functional goods like hats, which are much like fitting components in many mid-core games which multiply birds destruction power also creating more currency sinks. Levelling up requires feathers which are earned through gacha and daily rewards.

Q & A with Rovio team:

Om: Was the switch to evolving birds and introduction of light crafting and fusion mechanics purely driven by F2P nature of the game? Or were there any other reasons to introduce this mechanics?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): With Angry Birds 2 we wanted to give the players more than just a saga map. We wanted to:

Focus more on the characters of the game

Offer different flavors of progression without removing any of the previous features.

If the player cares more about the characters they are more likely to engage with the game and try out different features. In the game there are several vectors of progression, but in the end they all feed back into improving your birds. This helps with keeping the complexity low while still offering a variety of features to play.

If we wouldn’t have added these new features to the game, it would be very hard to scale and expand upon. Today the game is doing very well and is in a healthy state, that might not have been possible unless we branched out early on._ Henrik Lundin

Om: How did the players respond to all these change, as birds also have functional aspects of component fitting (Hats) more typical of Mid-Core games?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): The reaction from our fans have been very positive whenever a new engaging feature is released. When we released the hats into the game there was suddenly new goals for the players and they got to choose how their birds should look like.

We think it as a very positive change to have a sense of choice when playing, no matter if it’s how their birds look or if they rather play a certain feature over the other.

c) Slingshot Level Up To level up the slingshot player first needs to unlock all the birds, which requires beating first 44 levels, this creates more rewards and goals for mid level players removing linearity of just beating levels with added incentive.

Q & A with Rovio team:

Om: It seemed like the design team added multiple level up’s and progression path which are intertwined? What was the motive and incentive behind them, how did you ensure players understood all these different paths without getting overwhelmed?

Måns Wide (Angry Birds 2 Executive Producer): The saga map progression is easy to understand and quite effective in casual games, but it has a lot of limitations. It’s hard to push seasonal content when all the players are sitting at totally different places in a huge map. Also, focusing on progressing the characters seemed like a logical move since people really relate to the birds. Leveling your beloved bird-makes is more rewarding than just moving from level to level.

As what comes from protecting players from becoming overwhelmed, we unlock the features one at a time. We also try to balance the game so that the players will never get too much new information at the same time.

2) Introduction to Gacha

Gacha systems are a huge hit with mid-core and hard-core players as it adds an element of luck and anticipation which a lot of players find thrilling, immense success of social casino games with a casual player base is also a strong testament of how thrilling luck based features are for the players.

AB 2 makes use of this in 2 ways.

Daily chest and reward mechanics which offers players a free chest with rewards every half an hour and conditioning and habituating them to free rewards and paid premium chests if player wants more items.

2. Tower of Fortune: This is an interesting and engaging daily rewards mechanics which makes great use of behavioral economics principle of “Loss Aversion”

In economics and decision theory, loss aversion refers to people’s tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains

“Tower of Fortune” is a daily reward mechanics with player having 75% chance of winning and 25% chance of losing, each floor of the tower gives player 3 rewards and one chance of losing all previous and current rewards if he chose a card with a pig on it, but as you can see in example above, once player has racked up multiple rewards from subsequent rounds and he encounters a pig, the cost of losing the rewards he has accumulated, is much greater than what he needs to pay to continue playing, this leads to a situation of “loss aversion” where players are less likely to let go of what they have already earned by paying a small fee/fine rather then let go of all that they know they have won for sure.

Q & A with Rovio team:

Om: What was the inspiration behind introducing gacha system to your casual player base audience? Why did you think such a mechanic will be a hit with your player base?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): Random based rewards have since long proven to work on games, as it’s both fun and exciting for players. Having several ways of progressing in our game, using different resources, it made a lot of sense to introduce gachas to the game.We have definitely taken considerable measures to be very clear about gatchas.

We take care to visualise clearly the opening of a chest so players understand what is going on. An important part of our interface when opening these chests is that all rewards are automatically added to where they belong with a clear visual animation.

This helps players understand why they got the resource and what it is good for. If that would not have existed we could have ended up in a situation where players received rewards that were both unclear in function while also just taking up space in some inventory.

Om: What was the player response to chests and Tower of fortune in terms of engagement?

Måns Wide (Angry Birds 2 Executive Producer):

“ The Tower of Fortune had a huge impact on the game, mostly in terms of gem spent. As it is now, 30% of all hard currency is spent in there”_ Måns Wide

In terms of engagement it’s harder to say since we pushed the new start screen – a huge change in the game – about a month after introducing the Tower. So it is not trivial to see what’s the root of the positive trends in terms of engagement and retention.

Om: What do you think of our hypothesis? Was AB 2 targeted at engaging and maturing the existing casual player base? Or did you plan to make it more appealing to mid-core users as well?
Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): Angry Birds in general is a brand with a broad appeal, that is something we wanted to keep intact by making the game approachable for everyone.

“As we are introducing more mid-core features to the game, it is our responsibility to make it understandable even for casual players” _Henrik Lundin

We believe that creating more depth in the game is good for both our players and ourselves in terms of scalability, but we’re definitely taking baby steps into the mid-core features. For example, there is little inventory management in the game, meaning most of the flows in the game are streamlined towards the player progressing. If our players take part of an event, they’ll gather resources and improve their birds – it’s not more complex than that.

There is always a fine balance between keeping the game approachable but deep enough to satisfy most of our players. The best part about the game is that it’s all optional, our players can choose to spend their time in the game wherever they want without being blocked from other content. It might take months for a casual player to change their playing behaviour to a more mid-core style, but as they do I think Angry Birds 2 is a good gateway into the mid-core market.

3) Arena and social features

Every 3 hours, the player receives a Ticket, which allows them to enter the Arena. In the Arena, a player goes head to head against other players in an asynchronous battle of Angry Birds
Q & A with Rovio team:

Om: Arena battles were clearly a big move towards adding more social attributes to the game, do you think that objective was achieved with this mode?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): The Arena in Angry Birds 2 played two big roles in the game. The first was definitely to make it more social, seeing other players and having fun playing against another player. The second, but maybe the most successful, reason is to give players who like to compete a place to do so. I believe that even a player who is more casual can get a thrill out of knowing they play against someone else, and feeling great when they manage to win!

Competitiveness exists in everything we do in our ordinary lives, so it’s all about how you present the challenge to the player. In our game you play a level just like any part of the game, the only difference is that you play against your opponent’s final score. This means that there’s no great barrier to overcome making it more accessible. As the player wins they can climb in leagues and earn good rewards for it, further encouraging players to engage with the game.

Om: What are the future trends that you see for your casual and mid-core players, what new features can we expect from AB 2 evolution in future?

Måns Wide (Angry Birds 2 Executive Producer): Dynamic live-ops content engages players in mid-core games nowadays. We’ll add a lot of urgency to the game; stuff that happen HERE and NOW! With the clans and global leaderboards it makes sense to put more focus on social features and collaboration.

Om : Any advice to other Developers who are building casual games, to leverage engagement, social and monetization aspects of their game in this crowded space?

Henrik Lundin (Angry Birds 2 Lead game designer): I would start by pointing out that just because a game is casual doesn’t necessarily mean it’s shallow. Everything comes down to how you present information to the player in an approachable way so they don’t feel lost and confused along the way.

“When you’re creating your game you should design for it to live for years, that means you have to have smart systems in place that can scale and engage players for a long time. In support of that I would not look too much in the past way of making casual games where the core game was 90% of the experience” _Henrik Lundin

I believe that future games will have a much stronger meta game that can stand on its own feet, only to be enhanced by a fun core game. When players start engaging in an interesting meta game, by playing a fun core game, you will have a very good game on your hands!

Om: What would you call the secret sauce for success of Angry Birds 2?
Mia Lähteenmäki (Rovio User Research Lab): To me it seems that Angry Birds 2 team does have a secret sauce indeed, and I see there three major ingredients. At the general level they are domain expertise, systematic learning and understanding users. It is however possible to identify these ingredients more closely:

1) The game designers’ skills: Game genre skills and ability to adapt from existing knowledge of games. They have been able to distill all this into something totally new for this specific game and game genre.

2) Developing design principles: When they are developing new things and making iterations to make game work better, they have made efforts to develop them as learnings. As a consequence, they have been able to develop a set of general design principles that work for the game, some of which has been discussed above. This also helps keeping the game design consistent now and in the future, when new features are introduced.

3) Understanding and listening to players: This happens not only through analytics insights, but also by seeking understanding through other channels. For example, game development team, including product leads, have been active on our fan sites and social media like FB. So if you go and ask them what they players think about this or that, they are able to answer.

Conclusion:

From the analysis above we can safely conclude:

1) Players maturing is a rising trends, it is possible for devs. to mature and transition casual gamers into more mid-core & competitive gameplay, via introduction of mid-core features in a mild and phased manner for ultra casual games.

2) Casual game developers can extend the shelf life of their games and add more scalability and depth to create more immersive experiences by pivoting to mid-core features in an accessible and acceptable way. （Source：gamasutra.com  ）